The Internet and other networks can provide a searchable collection of data and information. Search engines provide a portal to the collection by allowing users to conduct searches using a number of different search parameters. Social networking websites can provide information sharing capabilities that enhance the power of the Internet and other networks. People from across the globe or across the street can share ideas, information, and build relationships using such sites. One criterion that most social networking websites share is providing at least some power to website users—allowing the users to contribute their own ideas and creativity to enhance website content and appeal to users.
The amount of content available via the Internet has grown substantially. The relatively large amount of content, however, makes searching and finding accurate and relevant content to particular search parameters difficult. Some social networking websites provide tagging or other organizational functionality to allow users to organize content in a more search-friendly manner. Such sites, however, allow users to use any tag organization and the collection of tagged content from all users can result in a disorganized collection.
Websites that organize content in a helpful manner may still experience difficulty in providing accurate and relevant content. Users adding content to sites can be a powerful tool to increase the variety and amount of content. Without diligent review, however, user-added content can include inaccurate information, incomplete information, or otherwise irrelevant information that other users must filter, either manually or otherwise, to find the information they seek. To assist filtering, some websites allow site users to rank or comment on content, with highly ranked content being more easily accessible to lower ranked content on the same topic. The ranking and comments may be manipulated by users who wish for their content to be highly ranked and fail to recognize or reward “good” or relevant content.
Even if websites organize content and ensure “good” content is available and easily found, they may suffer from a lack of “good” content being added by users. For example, users may have no reason to add content to a website or a network database. Accordingly, a need exists for a web-based community that includes a searchable collection of content in which users can add content to the collection and receive recognition of their participation in the community.